Sports

SUMMER HOOPS

Basketball junkies:

If the college and NBA season didn’t sate your appetite for basketball, then the next week of games certainly will appeal to you.

After returning from the Nike All-American and Adidas/ABCD national camps, the Southland’s finest high school players return to California to compete in local camps and tournaments.

The action began Tuesday with all-star games at the Superstar Camp at Cal State Long Beach. First-round action also began in the Great Western Shootout at Ocean View High. The Shootout finals are scheduled for Friday.

Starting today at 1 p.m., Artesia plays Peninsula in the first round of the Fairfax Summer Classic. Other first-round games are Long Beach Poly vs. Gardena, 2 p.m.; Los Angeles vs. Dominguez, 3 p.m.; Santa Clara vs. J.W. North, 4 p.m.

After a one-hour break, Fairfax will play St. Monica at 6 p.m. followed by Westchester vs. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, 7 p.m.; Harvard-Westlake vs. La Canada, 8 p.m., and St. John Bosco vs. Muir, 9 p.m.

Keep an eye on senior shooting guard Ivan Garner and sophomore point guard Flinder Boyd for the Lions.

On Friday, the West Coast Camp will begin holding all-star games starting at 11 a.m.

On Saturday, 48 teams from throughout the nation will begin play in the Slam-N-Jam National Tournament in the Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach.

On Sunday, the finals of the Fairfax Summer Classic will be held at 3:30 p.m. while action continues at the Slam-N-Jam in Long Beach.

The title game will be July 20 in the Pyramid.

SHRINE CLASSIC

Directors of the Shrine All-Star Football Classic have changed its format in an attempt to rekindle interest in the annual game.

On July 22 at Cal State Fullerton, the 45th annual Shrine Classic will feature top high school football players from California and Texas.

Westchester receiver Tony Griffin will be on the California team. Griffin, The Times’ Westside Lineman of the Year, signed to play with USC in the fall.

“The game doesn’t attract the crowd it used to, so in attempts to solve that, we decided to try something new,” said Nate Grosher, managing director.

Earlier in its 44-year history, the Shrine game pitted the best high school players from Southern California against the best from Northern California.

During the mid-1980s, only Southern California players competed. Then organizers reverted to the original format.

Nothing stopped the slide. Shrine games used to be played before large crowds in the Coliseum and Rose Bowl, but low attendance in recent years has forced organizers to use smaller venues.

Organizers hope that the California-Texas rivalry will draw bigger crowds.

Said Grosher: “We’ll see if it works, and if it does, we will continue to do it.”

COACHING HOPES

Beverly Hills High baseball Coach Bill Erickson is one of the finalists for the vacant coaching position at Los Angeles City College.

Erickson, who formerly was an assistant at West Los Angeles College, hopes to replace Dan Cowgill, who resigned in May. Erickson has coached 12 years at Beverly Hills and has led the Normans to the Southern Section playoffs 10 times.

“It will be a very, very interesting and challenging opportunity,” Erickson said. “I enjoy my position at Beverly Hills, but I would like a new challenge. There is no way I can come out a loser.”

Erickson leaves Sunday for Colorado Springs to run the baseball competition for the Olympic Festival. He is on the festival’s national administrative task force.

Other finalists for the Los Angeles City College post include Cal State Long Beach pitching coach and former LACC assistant Steve Roush, former Compton coach and California Angels scout Dale Campbell, and Rio Hondo Coach Mike Scolinos.

LACC will announce its choice July 21.

AAU STANDOUT

Taryn Reynolds of Notre Dame Academy was a member of the Nativity Girls Basketball Club, which placed second in the 16-and-under Amateur Athletic Union National Championships Saturday in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Reynolds, a 5-guard-7 point guard who averaged 11 points a game, was selected to the AAU All-American Team. The Minnesota North Tartan Blues defeated Nativity Girls, 74-64, in the final.